At least 22 dead, 36 injured after truck carrying Afghan refugees from Pakistan falls into a ditch

At least 22 Afghan refugees were killed on Saturday, mostly women and children, after a truck carrying them fell into a ditch. Traffic accidents are common across Afghanistan, where roads are poorly maintained, and drivers routinely ignore traffic regulations.Children who were injured after a truck carrying Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan overturned on a highway in the Laghman province, and later evacuated to hospital, in Jalalabad city, Afghanistan Saturday, May 30, 2026(AP Photo/Shafiullah Kakar)At least 22 people have been killed and 36 others injured, most of them women and children, after a truck carrying Afghan refugees from Pakistan overturned on a highway in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday (local time).The incident occurred in Laghman province on the main highway linking Afghanistan's capital city, Kabul, with Nangarhar province, AP reported, citing Abdul Malik Niazai, the spokesperson for the provincial governor.Truck falls into a ditch, kills 22Niazai added that of those dead, 10 were children and five women, and the injured were taken to hospitals in Nangarhar. The provincial director of public health, Aminullah Sharif, said the accident occurred after the truck fell into a ditch when the driver fell asleep.The passengers were among thousands of Afghans who recently returned from Pakistan, which launched a crackdown on migrants in 2023 and has since deported or pressured many to leave. Iran also intensified expulsions of Afghan migrants around the same time. Since then, millions of Afghans have returned home from the two countries, including many who were born in Pakistan and had spent decades living and working there.Afghanistan-Pakistan relationsPakistani authorities have toughened their stance on Afghan migrants and refugees in their country, resulting in an outflow that often includes families travelling with their belongings in trucks, The Guardian reported.Figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration show that 447,400 Afghans have returned from Pakistan since the start of the year.Traffic accidents common across AfghanistanTraffic accidents are common across Afghanistan, where roads are poorly maintained, and drivers routinely ignore traffic regulations.In a separate accident in the eastern province of Nuristan, a car fell off the road into a river on Friday night, injuring the driver and leaving four passengers missing, the governor’s office said on Saturday. Rescue crews were searching for the four, the office said.In August last year, at least 78 people were killed after a bus collided with a fuel truck in western Afghanistan. The bus was carrying Afghans who were recently deported from Iran. The accident occurred in Guzara district, Herat province, and caused an explosive fire.Back in 2025, over 1.5 million people returned to Kabul by August from Tehran and Islamabad, both of which had resorted to forcing migrants out after decades of hosting them, according to the UN migration agency. Many of those deported had often spent years outside the country and arrived without a place to go, with few belongings, and faced challenges resettling in a country marred by endemic poverty and high unemployment.Several major road accidents involving fuel tankers have occurred in Afghanistan in recent years.In December 2024, two separate crashes involving buses, a fuel tanker, and a truck on a highway in central Afghanistan left at least 52 people dead.Earlier, in March 2024, a bus struck a fuel tanker in southern Helmand province, triggering a fire that killed more than 20 people and injured 38 others.A similar incident was reported in December 2022 at the Salang Pass, where a fuel tanker overturned and caught fire, resulting in the deaths of 31 people.(with agency inputs)About the AuthorSwati GandhiSwati Gandhi is a digital journalist with over four years of experience, specialising in international and geopolitical issues. Her work focuses on for